Assange says the United States is in “serious decline” and will lose its super power status over the next few years. In response, Assange believes the average Australian should be taxed more and the money spent on defense and intelligence.

He says his political model is Malcolm Fraser, the former Australian prime minister who sold himself as a free market Thatcherite but instead increased government taxes and spending. He supported U.S. foreign policy and Indonesia’s annexation and occupation of East Timor which led to over 100,000 deaths.

Assange’s political philosophy seems to be based on the un-libertarian concept of government force, although he told The Age he is a defender of liberty and ”the right of citizens… to live lives free from state interference.”

“It’s not correct to put me in any one philosophical or economic camp, because I’ve learned from many. But one is American libertarianism, market libertarianism. So as far as markets are concerned I’m a libertarian, but I have enough expertise in politics and history to understand that a free market ends up as monopoly unless you force them to be free,” he told Forbes’ Andy Greenberg in 2010.

Like the United States, political hopefuls in Australia who are not connected to establishment political parties have little chance of success in national elections. Antony Green, a leading Australian election analyst, told The Telegraph that Assange would need a strong political base in order to realize his political ambitions.